Waiting for Something that Never Seems to Happen
by irite
Summary: Bruce Banner is the pariah; Thor Odinson is the new kid. They wind up in physics together, and for some reason, Thor keeps trying to talk to Bruce. High school AU.
1. Chapter 1

**My beta, dysprositos, is the best ever. I'm pretty sure she had a moment (or perhaps even longer) of wondering what the hell had gotten into me when she received an email from me containing the words "high school au." And, as I know nothing about physics, she's agreed to help me out with that. So thank you!**

**Uh, high school warning. God knows that's traumatic for me.**

* * *

Sitting at the lab table in the back by himself, Bruce Banner watched disinterestedly as students noisily found partners for a group activity.

He didn't need a partner, was usually hindered by them, actually, (being at the top of his class and a science whiz besides), and so the teacher usually allowed him to work by himself unless there was another student without one.

There was some commotion at the front of the room as a student apparently came in late, but Bruce couldn't see through the flurry of bodies changing seats.

The teacher said nothing, so Bruce assumed it was unimportant, and, growing tired of people-watching, turned his attention to the worksheet of directions.

He was halfway down the page, his finger tracing the lines of text, when someone cleared their throat right next to him.

Jumping, startled (because no one _ever_ comes close to him, god, try and blow up the school _one time_ and what do you get? total social ostracism), Bruce turned wide eyes on the interloper.

And was promptly met with a large hand in his face. "I'm Thor Odinson. Need a partner?"

Bruce didn't answer him, instead asking rudely, "You new or something?" The guy had an accent of some sort, something that sounded vaguely Scandinavian. Not that Bruce was any sort of expert or anything.

The interloper ignored the tone and answered the question. "I am. This is my brother's and my first day here. He is in another science class, however." Indicating the empty seat where Bruce had dumped his backpack with the hand Bruce had ignored, the giant asked, "May I?"

"Uh, sure." Removing his backpack from the stool with a grunt, Bruce figured that one of two things was going on. Either there was an odd number of students and this...Thor had to be paired with him per teacher's orders, or Thor just didn't understand the stigma attached to being seen with Bruce, speaking with Bruce.

Well, he'd understand it soon enough.

Sitting down, the giant offered his hand again, his smile still friendly. "Do you have a name?"

"Um, Bruce. Bruce Banner." Awkwardly, Bruce shook his hand. Adding "nice to meet you" seemed like the appropriate thing to do, so after a pause, he did so.

"What are we doing?"

Relieved to turn the attention off himself, he handed over the worksheet silently. He'd already read over the directions in the lab workbook sometime before, so he could just figure it out as he went along. No problem.

Thor scanned it, but then asked again, patiently, "What are we doing? My English is pretty good, but some of this scientific, I think the word is 'jargon'? goes over my head."

Softly, Bruce explained, indicating the various items on the table in front of them as he mentioned them.

Although Thor certainly tried to initiate one, they carried out the assignment with a minimum of conversation.

And Bruce thought that would be the end of that.

The few times a new person had come to school and unknowingly dared to challenge the status quo by interacting with him, they were either put in a similar position of outcastmanship or a 'concerned' student would take them aside and explain why no one spoke to Bruce before they could be tainted by association.

This time would be no different, he was sure of it.

* * *

Later that day, in the cafeteria, sitting by himself in the corner with a two-empty-table radius around him, Bruce saw Thor laughing while sitting next to a serious, dark-haired boy. As he had not seen the other kid around before (and despite his outsider status, he _did_ know most of the people in the school—it was too small for him to _not_), Bruce assumed that must be the briefly-mentioned brother.

Paying little mind to them, he turned his eyes back to his book, tracing a finger over the lines of the diagram he was examining reverently.

* * *

The next day, sitting in the back of the physics classroom (with a three-chair radius this time, someone must be absent, he noted absently), he was flipping through the section they were due to cover (the teacher had a nasty habit of calling on him to answer the most obscure questions, probably in an attempt to get him to participate), running a finger over the pages, when there was a noise at the desk next to him.

The sound of a stack of books hitting the desktop, to be precise.

Blinking, Bruce looked over.

Thor smiled back at him, lifting his unnecessary textbooks off the table to set them on the floor.

Bruce couldn't help but notice his biceps—they were impressive. He'd probably be recruited to some sports team or other before the month was out.

Figuring that some sort of response was expected, Bruce offered a jerky nod before turning his attention back to his book.

"There wasn't any assigned reading last night, was there? The teacher didn't say..."

It took Bruce a moment to realize that this was directed at him. "Huh? Oh, no. This is just..." waving a hand to illustrate, blushing, "Fun."

"Ah, you're interested in science? My brother is as well. He's taking chemistry at the moment, though."

"That's...nice." Bruce hadn't carried on a conversation with another student for this long in ages, and he was starting to struggle.

Thor kept things moving, though. "I like English more, myself."

"...You do?"

"Yeah. I'm trying to read through all of Shakespeare. There's a lot. But it's definitely doable, even if the language is somewhat challenging."

Before Bruce had to come up with some sort of reply to that, the teacher began class, and he turned his eyes to the front of the classroom, relieved.

* * *

At lunch that day, Bruce was approached by the most popular guy in school, Tony Stark. Stark somehow managed to have periodic conversations with Bruce—the pariah—without suffering any of the ill effects. It was probably the fact that his dad was loaded. Or maybe it had something to do with his ridiculous good looks (which nobody was immune to, not the teachers, not the administration, not the other students, and certainly not Bruce).

But on top of being rich and handsome, he was also some sort of an engineering genius, and the only reason he wasn't already in college was that his parents (and, Bruce suspected, their shrink) thought it would be best for him to be around other people his age.

For 'social adjustment' and all.

Stark would occasionally request that Bruce look over a new project he was working on. Apparently the fact that he was taking advanced physics (with the new kid) and calculus with the seniors (who didn't like him, either) made him useful to the kid. Bruce had even been over to his house a few times to see the final designs.

It was another of those requests that day, and there was an invitation attached.

Bruce said 'sure,' and Tony said 'cool, man,' and left.

Nobody else spoke to Bruce besides his teachers for the rest of that day.

* * *

**This is definitely my "fun" project, and I don't have any sort of a set update schedule because of that.**

**What do y'all think?**


	2. Chapter 2

**My beta, dysprositos, has still not yet declared me insane for attempting a HS AU. She's pretty awesome.**

**The high school warning is still in effect, as I have not yet found how to write a HS AU without including HS. Oh well, maybe one day...**

* * *

Bruce rang the doorbell at Tony's house, and the Starks' butler, Jarvis, answered, smiling kindly.

He took Bruce's jacket (Bruce almost fumbled it in the handoff, unused to this sort of treatment) and asked if he was hungry. Still with that smile on his face.

Bruce _was_, but he smiled tightly and shook his head. Being in this house always made him nervous, and he longed for the comfort and quiet of his own room.

Well, it was more of a _closet_, if he was being technical, but it was his, and that was what mattered.

So he said "No thank you," attempting to be polite, and headed down the stairs to where he knew Tony's workshop slash lab was. And where Tony would be. Bruce was pretty sure he slept down there most of the time.

He didn't see Jarvis's pitying look aimed at his back nor did he care to. Pity was for people with real problems, not him.

* * *

Tony was apparently glad to see him, turning his music down and hollering "Banner!" at the top of his lungs.

Bruce did his best to hide his answering wince (loud noises really weren't his thing), attempting to cover it by running a hand through his hair and down his face. He answered Tony with a quiet, "Hey."

"Got some calculations I wanted a second opinion on over there," Tony pointed.

Bruce obediently trudged over, but couldn't help asking (because this wasn't how it usually went with Tony), "Why I am looking at your calculations? You usually only ask me to do them when you're feeling lazy."

Waving a dismissive hand, Tony answered, "Dad said he's taking my car away if I set the lab on fire again. Better safe than sorry, I guess."

"Oh." That was a good enough reason, and Bruce set to work, scratching out equations on the back of the paper. Tony preferred using computers exclusively, but Bruce had a hard time seeing the screens—probably even needed glasses—so one day after observing Bruce valiantly squinting at a page of code, Tony had started printing out his work without comment. Bruce appreciated it.

All of Tony's work appeared to be correct, and Bruce told him so, turning to look at his, well, maybe Tony was a friend? Bruce wasn't sure.

The budding engineer was stripped down to a black tank top, grease streaks all up his arms and one on his face.

It looked like he'd run a hand through his hair a few times; it was mostly slicked back, sticking up in places. Bruce didn't envy him scrubbing that out later.

Tony thanked Bruce, and offered to let him hang around and see the finished product. Apparently he was working on some sort of device for the medical field, a way to help heart patients.

Bruce knew that if it was successful, it would probably be patented under Howard Stark's name, and Tony would storm around the halls of school, his face a thundercloud, for about a week. He'd get in at least one fight, but after a discussion behind closed doors with the school counselor, it would be stricken from his record.

And Bruce would rather remove himself from that situation now, so he thanked Tony and left, taking his jacket back from Jarvis and pulling it on as he walked out the front door, turning to amble home.

* * *

At school the next day, Tony walked by Bruce as he stood at his locker, taking out his books, and clapped him on the shoulder. "Looks like it works, Banner, thanks."

"You're welcome," Bruce replied, but Tony was already gone, down the hall surrounded by a crowd of people.

Shrugging slightly, he collected his things and trudged down the hall to physics.

He took his usual seat in the back and buried his head in the homework from the night before, double-checking all of his answers.

The teacher called the class to order and directed that they should pass their homework to the front of the room; Bruce stood and walked forward to hand it to the student sitting two seats in front of him.

He'd learned the hard way that if he sat and waited for the student to turn around and ask for Bruce's paper, well, that would never happen. And then Bruce would get a 0 on the assignment, and he didn't like that.

Not at all.

So he stood up and walked his paper up, determinedly not making eye contact with the dick who didn't have the decency to turn around.

As he was returning to his seat, Thor came into the room, out of breath and red-faced.

He handed the teacher a note, and she read it and nodded. Then Thor strode down the aisle next to where Bruce was sitting to take a seat at the desk next to Bruce.

Almost every student in the room swiveled their head at the same rate to watch him, and Bruce groaned internally.

_So it begins_.

Because Bruce hadn't possessed luck since he learned to talk, the teacher had chosen that day to assign a group project.

She usually let Bruce work by himself, but he'd caught her eyeing him thoughtfully and suspected that this wouldn't be the case this time.

And she walked down the aisles, handing a worksheet out. When she reached Bruce, she fixed him with a pointed look. He hunched his shoulders but nodded at her.

She smiled, seemingly pleased, and Bruce wondered if she also tortured small animals for pleasure or if she just got her kicks messing with him.

As soon as all of the assignments were handed out, the chatter began as people began to look for friends to work with.

Silently, Bruce started to scan the instruction sheet. It was a project on Newton's Laws, which weren't the most interesting thing in the world, but he could deal with that.

What he couldn't deal with was the line directly below that stated **Group Size: 2-4 people**.

His strategy in these sorts of situations was to sit quietly until everyone else had buddied up and then allow the teacher to assign him to a group. At least then it wasn't _his_ fault that they'd gotten stuck with him, so maybe they wouldn't ascribe all of the blame to him. Just 97% of it.

But Thor turned to face him instead of going to find a group among their circulating classmates, grinning.

"Would you care to be my partner, Bruce?"

Bruce almost fell out of his seat in shock, and then vainly tried to cover that reaction. It was bad enough he was an asocial freak, he didn't have to _act _like one.

"Sure, I guess. I mean, if you want to."

"I think it will be fun."

Well, Bruce needed a partner, and this was less humiliating than allowing the teacher to foist him off on a group of unfriendly classmates, so he accepted with a nod.

"When would you like to begin working on this?" Thor asked. "It says that we have a week to complete the assignment."

"Uh, I'm pretty flexible." Understatement of the year; it wasn't like he had any social engagements. "When works for you?"

"Tomorrow afternoon?"

"In the school library?" Bruce couldn't take Thor home with him, and he certainly didn't want to invite himself over to Thor's house, so that was the best plan.

They agreed, and then Bruce went about the rest of his day quietly.

* * *

**Reviews make me happy!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh, wow, it's been over a month since my last update. I'm sorry about that; I'm in summer school and pretty busy right now, but I'll do my best to get another chapter up in the next couple weeks or so. Thanks for sticking with me!**

**Many thanks to my wonderful beta, dysprositos, who not only puts up with me sending her a million things a week but doesn't mind that I'm writing about physics.**

**WARNING: scene of bullying and two uses of derogatory homophobic language. For the record, that's really NOT COOL.**

* * *

Walking into the library after school, Bruce expected to be the first one there for his meeting with Thor about their project; hell, he expected that Thor wouldn't show at all.

Just because Thor seemed nice, that didn't mean anything. For all Bruce knew, Thor could have been pretending to be friendly just to spring some sort of a joke on Bruce, here in the library, where the librarian was noted for her inattentiveness, preferring to read the magazines she kept in her desk over supervising students.

So Bruce dodged the few people in the room as he moved through the stacks to the tables beyond, but he was abruptly blocked by three bigger boys, grinning.

"Going somewhere, Banner?"

Ducking his head, Bruce mumbled something and tried to walk around them. If possible, he preferred to avoid conflict because it didn't usually end well…either for him or for the people who pissed him off.

But the bullies slid to the side, covering Bruce's possible escape route.

Throwing a helpless look over his shoulder at the librarian (oblivious, nose buried in _People_), Bruce tried, "Look, I just want to go meet my partner so we can do this project."

"Ooh, the little faggot has a 'partner,'" Stane, the leader, sneered.

"Fuck off, Stane," Bruce blustered, doing his best to keep his face clear and calm, not showing the bullies that their taunt was hitting home.

His sexual orientation was a well-kept secret (because who in their right mind would want to go out with _him_?), and he preferred to keep it that way. No need to give his schoolmates any more ammunition to use against him. They had enough for several lifetimes already.

"What if I don't feel like it?" Stane asked, and his support, an exchange student named Blonsky (whose main habits seemed to be bullying whenever teachers' backs were turned and consistently scoring well in history class), snorted.

"Well, maybe you should get your 'feelings' checked out then. Just get out of my way, come on."

"I've decided, and I definitely don't want to move. Go around us, Banner."

And that was a good suggestion, surprisingly, except for the fact that Stane's third goon, a transfer student from Germany who'd joined their school a few years back, Schmidt, had circled around behind Bruce and was tauntingly leaning against the wall, completely blocking Bruce's exit.

He was starting to get pissed off, and desperately, he tried to suppress his reaction, "Come on, guys, just move. I don't want to hurt you."

Blonsky took a threatening step forward at that. "You? Hurt us? That's a laugh, fag."

Bruce's hands began to clench into fists at his sides. He _really_ didn't want to get into a fight in the library, but it didn't look like he was going to get much choice about it.

"Stane, what the hell?" A voice interrupted from behind Bruce and Schmidt; they whirled around at the same time.

In his JROTC uniform, Jim Rhodes stood there with his hands on his hips, glaring.

"Go away, Rhodes, this isn't your business."

"You came into my library and made it my business, now get out of Banner's way before I make you. Or worse, he'll make you. And believe me, you don't want that."

As one of the student government leaders, Rhodes of course knew about Bruce's past few…incidents, but those had been mostly covered up by well-meaning members of the administration and guidance staffs. It was a shame, really; if word got around that it had been Bruce who'd blackened the quarterback's eye instead of an unfortunate locker room mishap, he'd probably be left alone more often.

But he had no means of spreading rumors, and keeping his head down seemed to be the most effective means of keeping the bullies at bay. Well, most of the time, at least.

With one last shove to Bruce's shoulder, Stane and his goons pushed past him and left the library.

"Uh, thanks," Bruce said to Rhodes.

"Don't let them get to you," the cadet offered, turning around and leaving the library as well.

Well, that was some singularly unhelpful advice. But at least Rhodes had stuck around long enough to be thanked; Bruce hated feeling like he owed people.

Moving to the back of the library and finding an empty table, Bruce pulled out his assignment sheet and notebook, wanting to be ready when (_if_) Thor got there so that he detained Thor as little as possible.

They were supposed to make a video of themselves demonstrating Newton's Laws, and grudgingly Bruce had to admit that this project would have been challenging to carry out on his own. He didn't know where he could get a tripod, and he didn't know how he could film himself otherwise.

A few minutes later, Thor rushed up to the table, black-haired brother in tow, "Sorry I'm late, Bruce. Uh, Bruce, this is my brother, Loki. Loki, Bruce."

"Um, nice to meet you," Bruce muttered. Loki just nodded perfunctorily, taking a seat at a nearby table.

Fumbling with his backpack, Thor pulled out his assignment sheet and read over the instructions quickly, making a face.

"This is juvenile," he complained, but looked at Bruce expectantly.

Dutifully, Bruce recited, "They have video equipment that you can check out here, and, uh, we can probably set up at the park around the corner to do it."

"Actually, I have a video camera at my house, and we can record this there. I'm sure Loki would be happy to help us, if we need it. After all, he will need to practice so that he can accurately complete such…arduous tasks in future. If that's okay with you?"

Over Thor's shoulder, Loki pulled a face, and Bruce decided that he would do his best to keep them from needing Loki's help. And he never would have presumed to invite himself over to Thor's house, but he also wasn't going to argue the point, either.

So he just responded, "Uh, sure. That sounds fine."

"My car's in the lot outside, come on."

That was certainly fast, but Bruce packed up his things and was soon following Thor and Loki (what kind of names were those, anyway?) out to Thor's car.

Thor tried to get Loki to get in the back seat, but he stubbornly refused, and so attempting to avoid a conflict, Bruce stepped in, "The back seat's fine. Really."

"If you're sure," Thor replied dubiously, but he moved out of Bruce's way, putting his backpack in the trunk as Bruce slid into the car.

And that was how Bruce found himself riding in Thor's car (he was a careful driver, at least), going to Thor's house to do a physics project.

* * *

**Reviews are awesome, ya know?**


	4. Chapter 4

**Many thanks to my incredible beta, dysprositos, who is wonderful and tells me what to google for inspiration.**

* * *

At Thor's large house, which was more a 'mansion' than a 'house,' strictly speaking, Thor barely had the front door unlocked, Bruce hanging back, before Loki was shoving past his brother and hurrying up the stairs. Thor called after him, "I'll bring your snack up in a minute."

Then he turned to Bruce, who was hovering just outside the door, waiting to be asked inside. "Well, come on in; I'll get you something to eat, too."

"Uh, thanks, but I'm okay." Bruce didn't want to put Thor to any trouble, to any expense.

"You sure? You've got to be hungry; they serve lunch so early at school..."

Equally unwilling to seem ungrateful, Bruce answered, "If it's not a bother, I guess I could eat."

"'Course not. You can just leave your backpack here; we'll go up to my room in a few minutes."

Thor dumped his backpack at the foot of the large staircase dominating most of the front hall, and Bruce followed suit, trailing behind Thor as he headed presumably to the kitchen.

"There's not a lot of options, my mom hasn't gotten the chance to really go to the grocery store yet."

Bruce was used to limited options.

Thor continued, "Leftover pizza good?"

"Sure, thank you."

"One slice or two?"

"Um, one is fine, thanks."

Thor bent over and opened the huge, shiny refrigerator and grabbed the pizza box out, setting it on the table and getting a small stack of plates from the cabinet. He took a slice out of the box, put it on a plate, and handed it to Bruce, then seemed to realize something. "You want that warmed up?"

"No, I'm good. Thanks."

"Coke?" Thor offered.

This was getting kind of surreal for Bruce. Other than the cafeteria ladies giving him a choice between the two options they were serving for lunch that day, _nobody_ cared to ask Bruce what he wanted to eat or god forbid, how he wanted it.

But Bruce wasn't used to caffeine, so he forced himself to make a request. "Could I just have water?"

Thor retrieved a glass from yet another cabinet and handed it to Bruce. "You mind getting it yourself? If I don't get this," he lifted a plate of pizza, "up to Loki in the next minute, he's going to come down here and throw a tantrum."

"Sure, no problem."

"Be right back," Thor said, and then he was gone.

Bruce was left all alone in this big, fancy house, and that level of trust stunned him. You just couldn't trust people enough to leave them alone with your stuff (especially not kitchen things; fancy silverware was so easy to conceal in a pocket), not if you ever wanted to see most of it again without redeeming it from the pawn shop—if you were lucky—but maybe Thor's parents hadn't unpacked all their things yet, so it was safe.

Probably that.

Bruce put his glass under the sink and filled it up, then sat down at the large table in the corner of the room. He took a couple bites of his pizza and chewed slowly; he wasn't used to eating between lunch and dinner and he wanted to savor it.

Thor came back into the room and dropped down next to Bruce at the table, devouring about half a slice of pizza in one bite and following it with a large drink of his Coke.

Intensely curious about why Loki needed room service, Bruce seriously considered asking Thor. It would probably be terribly rude, though, and awkward, so in the end he just kept his mouth shut and ate his pizza quietly.

Despite eating three pieces to Bruce's one, Thor finished at the same time as Bruce and put their plates in their sink. "Come on," he beckoned, pausing at the bottom of the stairs to throw his backpack over one shoulder and then began taking the stairs three at a time.

Following more slowly, Bruce trailed after Thor into a large bedroom, full of half-emptied boxes and rather messy.

As if the thought had just occurred to him, Thor kicked a few boxes out of the center of the room and apologized, "Didn't realize I'd be having a guest over, sorry for the clutter."

Bruce shrugged and squatted down to pull the project sheet out of his backpack, looking up at Thor expectantly. It was Thor's house, Bruce wasn't going to try and call the shots. Not that he would anyway.

"Do you think we're going to need sound in our video? We can use my camera, but if we need sound I'll have to get my dad's video camera," Thor said.

"I don't think we'll need sound."

"Okay, uh, you can sit there," Thor indicated the desk against one wall, "while I find my camera, then. It should be in one of these boxes somewhere..."

Offering to help would probably get Bruce accused of stealing something later, so he carefully made his way across the room and sat at the desk, pulling a pencil out of his backpack and scribbling down a few ideas on the back of the directions sheet.

He heard "Got it!" a few minutes later and Thor came over to lean on the edge of the desk, casually dropping the camera onto it.

Bruce couldn't understand being that careless with something that was probably expensive, but that was Thor and his parents' problem, not his.

"I came up with a few ideas," he offered tentatively.

"Let's hear them." Thor made himself more comfortable, propping a hip on the desk and looking down at Bruce. It gave Bruce an excuse to not make eye contact.

"Uh, for the first law, it would be too easy to just film something not moving. There seem to be a lot of boxes around here, could we just push one across the yard or something?"

"That sounds like it'll work; let's go do that."

Thor picked up the camera and headed for the door, and after a moment of deliberation, Bruce threw his backpack over a shoulder and followed him.

Pausing, Thor knocked on a closed door, calling, "Loki, we're gonna be in the backyard."

"Whatever!" Loki yelled back.

Going down the stairs, Thor explained, "The empty boxes are in the garage."

"Okay."

They headed outside. Thor stopped in the garage to pick up a box, and then led the way into the large backyard to commence filming.

* * *

**I'm thinking Thor POV for next chapter; what do y'all think about that?**


	5. Chapter 5

**Many thanks to my awesome beta, dysprositos, for continual awesomeness and coming along behind me to check my physics.**

* * *

After they had successfully filmed the demonstration of Newton's first law, Thor put the box away in the garage and went back outside to where Bruce was standing in the middle of the backyard, right where Thor had left him.

Bruce was acting oddly, and Thor didn't know why. That didn't stop him from guessing. From what he had observed at school, Bruce didn't have many friends, so he probably didn't go over to other people's houses often.

And maybe his parents were strict or something, Thor didn't really know.

But Thor was the host, and he had to make sure he was a good one, so he asked, "You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you ready to work on the second law, then? If we're quick, we can probably finish all the filming today and I can edit the video on my laptop tonight after I finish the rest of my homework. Then we can be done with this stupid project."

"Uh, sure, that sounds good. Did you have any ideas for the second law?"

Thor noted that Bruce didn't need to go look up the second law before he asked about it, as Thor supposed many Americans would need to. Bruce seemed to know what he was talking about. Thor had learned the laws as a young child, so this was a rather elementary assignment for him.

And as such, it did not need to be a grand production. "Let's just drop something off the balcony outside my parents' room. That ought to do it."

"Uh, sure. What do you want to drop?"

Bruce seemed fine with taking direction from Thor, which bothered Thor a little. Most people their age would resent having another person boss them around, but Bruce didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

At least, Thor knew he certainly would be annoyed, but maybe Bruce was just raised differently, what with the cultural differences and all.

So he smiled back and said, "How about a can of Coke? That should be pretty easy to see on film."

"But wouldn't that make a mess when it hits the ground? I mean, it'll probably break open. Might even explode."

"Yeah, I guess so." Thor was bored with the assignment, not the company, and he would admit to making that suggestion a bit of a test. Now he knew that Bruce either didn't like making messes or he didn't want to make one all over Thor's backyard.

But it turned out that Bruce wasn't afraid to speak up if the occasion merited it, just not unless he felt he needed to. That was interesting.

"Why don't we drop a book instead? I have an old dictionary in my room, that should work."

"Okay, sure. I'll uh, wait here."

"I'll go get it. Do you want to drop the book?"

Since Thor was apparently the leader, he was determined to attempt to be nice and ask Bruce's opinion.

Bruce stiffened, but his voice was calm. "No, you filmed me last time, so why don't we switch?"

That was reasonable.

"Okay, here," Thor pulled the camera out of his pocket and handed it over.

But before Bruce took it, though, something prompted Thor to give him a quick demonstration on how to work it. He didn't know why, but Bruce's answering "Thanks" seemed to indicate that Thor had done the right thing.

He went into the house and up to his room, ignoring the loud music that Loki had started playing, and grabbed the dictionary out of the box next to his desk before going to his parents' room and opening the door to the balcony and sticking his head over the side.

Bruce was waiting right there, the camera held away from his body slightly.

"Ready?" Thor called.

"Uh, sure," Bruce held the camera up to eye level, peering through it for a moment before giving Thor a thumbs up.

Thor lifted the dictionary above his head and let it fall. It hit the ground with a loud smack, and Thor headed downstairs.

Bruce had picked up the dictionary and was waiting near the door when Thor went back out into the backyard.

"Did you get it?" Thor asked, trying this leader thing again.

"I think so, here." Bruce all but shoved the camera at Thor.

Thor checked, and the video was present, and just fine, considering that Thor was beginning to suspect that Bruce didn't use a camera often, if he ever had at all.

"One more to go, then," Thor said cheerfully. "I had an idea. Swimming should work for this one, right?"

"I think so."

"Okay, why don't we do that? Dad insisted on getting a house with a pool, and I haven't really gotten a chance to use it. You're about Loki's size, you can borrow a pair of his trunks."

"No, that's not really necessary. I can just film you."

"Are you sure?"

"Uh, I don't really know how to swim, Thor. So I'm fine, seriously."

That was interesting; despite the coolness of the climate in which Thor and Loki were raised, they had both been taught to swim at a very young age.

"If you say so. Just let me get changed, and I'll be right back out."

Thor started to hand Bruce the camera again, since he would be filming this time, too, but Bruce wasn't paying attention and after standing there for a minute with his hand held out, Thor shrugged and pocketed it, going inside.

He stopped and knocked at the door of Loki's room until Loki lowered the volume of his music enough to shout, "What?"

Thor rolled his eyes but called back, "I'm gonna get in the pool, and Mom said we were supposed to make sure someone else knew when we did that."

"Whatever," Loki replied and turned the volume of the music back up again.

Thor knew Loki resented the move, but he had been acting unnecessarily childish about it in Thor's opinion.

Well, he had fulfilled his obligations, so he headed to his room to change for swimming, wanting this part of the dumb project to be over.

* * *

**Whose POV do you want to see next, Thor's or Bruce's?**


	6. Chapter 6

**My beta, dysprositos, is absolutely the best.**

* * *

After he checked in with Loki, Thor headed into his room to change into his swimming trunks.

He pulled his hair up into a ponytail, and debated whether he should throw on a swim shirt or not.

Eventually, he decided against it; Bruce probably wouldn't care, and their video wouldn't show him out of the water, he'd make sure of that, so their teacher couldn't object.

So he just padded back downstairs and grabbed a clean towel out of the laundry closet on the way.

Back outside, it didn't appear as though Bruce had moved, standing still with the camera held slightly away from his body.

Thor called a "Hey!" as he moved over to the pool cover and started to work the crank. It was so new that it stuck, and he really had to work to get it off, but he was eventually successful.

Bruce didn't reply to his friendly greeting, and Thor paused for a second to look over his shoulder and make sure that he was okay. That last thing Thor needed was his project partner collapsing or something.

But Bruce was simply determinedly staring at his feet, which was odd, and Thor thought that perhaps he should have put that shirt on after all; maybe teenagers didn't walk around shirtless in front of their classmates here.

But it was a little too late to do anything about that, so Thor gave a few more jerky turns of the crank and finished removing the pool cover.

He smiled to himself and went around the pool to the deeper end, taking a few steps back from the pool's edge and running to launch himself in with a yell.

Bruce was far back enough that he wouldn't get hit by Thor's splash, after all, and Thor loved the brief moment of weightlessness before he hit the water.

When he surfaced again, he called to Bruce, "I'm ready if you are," and swam to the side of the pool, waiting for Bruce to call back.

"Okay, uh, I need to come closer," Bruce said.

Thor peered over the side of the pool until Bruce stopped walking, and then he said, "I'll swim a lap, and that should do it, right?"

He was the leader here, and he needed to act like it, or else Bruce would probably still be standing in the middle of Thor's backyard until the project was due. And that wasn't a very nice thought, Thor recognized, but he was used to working more collaboratively with his peers, not taking the lead.

Even his closest friends back home hadn't deferred to him, and never hesitated to tell him what an idiot he was. Especially his best friend, Sif.

But Thor couldn't think about that home now, because Bruce was saying, "Sure," and raising the camera so that he could look through it.

Thor shifted his position and when Bruce called, "Go," Thor pushed off, moving fast towards the other side of the pool.

And yeah, he was showing off.

It was partly due to his competitive nature but mostly due to wanting to impress Bruce, something that Thor acknowledged he did want to do. He hadn't made many friends here yet, and Bruce seemed like a good guy.

Thor touched the other side of the pool and waited until it looked like Bruce had switched off the recording function on the camera before he put his feet down and stood in the shallow end, pushing the hair that had escaped from his ponytail off his face.

He really didn't want to get out of the pool now that he had gotten in, and he didn't have anything more important to do until his parents got home, so he said, "Why don't you put the camera on that table over there?"

He was going to say more, but Bruce was hustling over, faster than Thor thought he'd seen him ever move, and that was curious.

But Thor sank back down in the water, and started to swim back towards the other end of the pool, making it halfway there before he spoke again.

"Why don't you take your shoes off and come put your feet in the water?" Belatedly, Thor realized, "Unless you need to be home soon, that is."

"No, I'm okay," Bruce said, although he didn't move any closer to the pool.

"C'mon, man, the water feels good. Promise I won't splash you."

Bruce's shoulders dropped a little, but he obligingly sat down and started unlacing his tennis shoes.

Then he cautiously stood back up and started moving closer to the pool, sitting down at the edge and putting his feet in one at a time. He was wearing shorts, so he just pulled those up away from his knees so they wouldn't get wet.

Thor realized that he was treading water and staring, so he took a deep breath and went underwater, giving himself a mental shake.

When he surfaced, he started swimming aimlessly, asking over a shoulder, "So what do you do for fun around here?"

Bruce seemed surprised to be asked, but he said, "Uh, go to the library. Maybe see a movie?"

His voice went up at the end, turning it into a question. That just reinforced what Thor had been hearing at school and what he'd noticed, that Bruce didn't have friends and wasn't really used to talking to other people his age. Honestly, going to the _library_ was his first choice of a 'fun' activity?

So Thor started talking about his favorite bands, just something to fill the silence, until he decided that he was ready to get out of the pool.

As he swam for the steps, Bruce stood up and backed away from the edge, blinking and dripping onto the concrete.

Thor offered, "You can use my towel before I get it all wet. I'd get you another one, but Mom has a rule about not dripping on the floor, and I doubt Loki will fetch it for me."

"Uh, thanks," Bruce picked up the towel and dried himself off quickly, starting to put it back on the table before he seemed to remember that Thor was waiting for it, and he turned to hand it to Thor instead.

Thor dried himself off as Bruce went over to put his socks and shoes back on, and then Thor asked, "Do you mind bringing the camera in? I don't want to drip on it."

They headed inside, and Thor said, "Be back in a minute," and went upstairs to change out of his wet clothes.

He'd need to take Bruce home now, he figured, so he dressed quickly, putting on his shoes, and went back downstairs to find that Bruce had had the same idea, and was standing by the front door with his backpack, twisting a strap around his finger.

"I put the camera on that table," Bruce pointed, and Thor nodded, grabbing his keys out of the bowl by the door.

"Ready to go home?"

"Uh, actually, can you just drive me back to school?"

That was a weird request, but maybe that was easier for Bruce's parents or something. Thor didn't know, and it wasn't his business, so he just smiled and said, "Sure. Do you have everything?"

Bruce nodded, and Thor opened the door, typing out a text message to Loki as he walked to the car ahead of Bruce.

* * *

**Reviews make me happy...**


	7. Chapter 7

**Many thanks to the beta-tastic dysprositos for continued beta awesomeness.**

* * *

The car ride started off in silence, and Bruce was glad. Going over to Thor's house after the long day at school had tired him out, and he was ready to retreat away from other people for the rest of the day.

But, unfortunately for Bruce, Thor apparently wasn't feeling like that. As he pulled away from a stop sign, he glanced over at Bruce and asked, "Do you want to come hang out again sometime? I can teach you how to swim, if you want."

It took a minute for the invitation to compute in Bruce's brain; he was so used to being ignored and shunned that actually being invited over to do something other than homework struck him as weird. Really weird.

Surreptitiously, he slipped a hand down and pinched his thigh. Hard.

It hurt.

So he shrugged, unsure about the appropriate response. He supposed learning to swim would be a useful skill someday, although he'd rather teach himself. But swimming didn't seem like something one could teach oneself out of a book, not like math or something.

And Thor seemed nice enough, although Bruce didn't trust that. Surely Thor had to have heard the whispers, had to have been told that Bruce was bad news.

The last new kid at school had been in Bruce's English class, and had taken the only empty seat in the room next to Bruce. When the teacher had told them to pair up for an activity, he'd turned to Bruce, who had nervously worked with him. At lunch later that day, Bruce had seen the new kid cornered against the wall, nodding furiously at whatever he was being told by Stane. When the kid's angry glare had fastened on Bruce, Bruce had taken his lunch and headed outside, putting himself in the corner of the students' recreation area with a book propped up in front of him to hide his face.

His caution had probably been over-the-top—he doubted the kid would have actually come after him—but Bruce didn't want to take any chances.

If the new kid had come after him and succeeded in getting Bruce pissed off, then Bruce probably wouldn't have been able to keep from hurting the kid. And that wasn't any way to make himself any less of an outcast.

Even though Thor was big enough that Bruce thought he wouldn't be so easily intimidated by the bullies at school, that worked against Bruce, who wasn't at all sure he could take Thor if it came to a fight, even if he was really pissed off.

So he hesitated some more, until Thor said, "Hey, you don't have to if you don't want to. I just noticed you, um, don't have a lot of friends."

That was generous. And also kind of rude, but Bruce supposed saying the truth couldn't really be considered _rude_.

"I don't have friends because people around here don't like me," Bruce explained. "And if you start hanging out with me, people aren't gonna like you. Or your brother, probably. Tainted by association and all that." He sounded bitter even to his own ears.

"Well, that's their loss," Thor said optimistically. "So, do you want to come over this weekend or what?"

Bruce bit his lip, deliberating. He had warned Thor, and although he probably should refuse for Thor's sake, Thor _was_ making an educated decision. If he knew about the stigma attached to associating with Bruce, and he still wanted Bruce to come over, well, that was his choice, wasn't it? And it probably wouldn't affect Loki; Bruce had been exaggerating some.

Besides, Bruce did desperately want a friend for the reasons other than the ones Tony Stark had for tolerating his presence on occasion.

So he shrugged again and said, "Sure, I guess. But I, uh, I don't have swimming trunks. And I can't get any before this weekend."

"Great!" Thor took his eyes off the road to smile broadly at Bruce before adding, "And don't worry. You can borrow a pair of Loki's swimming trunks. He's not big on swimming, there's probably still a pair in his closet with the tags on."

"You sure he won't mind?" Bruce didn't think Loki seemed like the sharing type.

Thor laughed, "He won't mind, I'm positive. How about Friday after school? You can ride with us again."

It wasn't like Bruce had some extensive social calendar or anything, so he said, "Sounds good. And um, thanks, Thor."

"No problem, Bruce." Thor reached over to turn the radio on, "Hey, you like this song?"

Bruce didn't really have an opinion, so rather than screw up their new friendship (_Was it a _friendship_?_), he just said, "Sure."

They rode the rest of the way to the school with the radio on, and then Bruce got out and thanked Thor for the ride, acting like he was going to go to the usual place where kids were picked up, hanging around until Thor had turned around and headed back the way he'd come before Bruce turned towards home and started walking.

At home, he went to his room and worked on his homework until dinnertime, which was announced by "You brats, dinner!" being screamed up the stairs.

* * *

The days between then and Friday went relatively smoothly. If both he and Thor were in their seats in physics before the bell rang, they would talk, although Bruce was careful to always let Thor initiate the conversation.

On Friday morning, just before the tardy bell rang, Thor dropped into his seat and said, "Meet us in the parking lot after school, okay?"

Bruce agreed, and then the teacher was calling the class to order as the bell sounded.

That day at lunch, Bruce was sitting alone and eating his sandwich when Tony approached him.

"Hey," Tony said, dropping backwards into the empty chair next to Bruce. "Want to come over this afternoon? I could use a second opinion on my new project."

"Sorry, I can't. I've got something else to do."

Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but he recovered easily enough, throwing back, "Didn't know you did anything besides go to class, Banner. Whatever, some other time." Shrugging, he got up and left the table.

Bruce couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by the encounter. What did Tony expect, Bruce to be at his beck and call?

But then that turned to worry. He was allowed to have other plans, he reminded himself. Tony could get along by himself just fine.

Taking a deep breath, Bruce pushed the conflicting feelings away, focusing back in on his lunch.

* * *

**A huge thank you to all my guest reviewers; y'all make my day. Thanks!**

**And on that subject, leave a review? Please?**


End file.
